Whenever asked what I do for a living, I tend to get vague reactions or faces when I tell them that I work from home. Immediately, people assume that I'm engaged with buy & sell and ask me what wares I sell or if I sell brochure cosmetics and such. I am not at all offended and take it as a funny encounter with someone not familiar with my kind of craft. Of course, I try my best to explain what virtual administration is and what I do on a daily.
Most people mistake me for having it easy when it comes to eking out a living through home-based or online jobs. They think that I'm just here sitting and Facebooking all day, which is far from what I really do unless you work as a Social Media Manager for a client who requires the service. Simply put, a virtual administrator is someone who works independently as an office clerk, the role could vary from secretarial tasks to customer service, or human resource in which you could function as one of each or both simultaneously and paid on your own negotiated terms of compensation. On a personal experience, my virtual administration is concurrent to my single parenting. At the time, I was having a hard time juggling my time between my work and family. Children demand so much time and they need all the attention they can get. As an employee, I didn't want to lose my credibility as a worker with poor attendance and performance, which is why I started seeking for other options in which I can still provide for my family and tend to my obligations at home. At first, it was a struggle. Virtual Administrator jobs weren't exactly known in the Philippines by then, and I couldn't even open a personal bank account without raising eyebrows because the clerk would ask me for employers and source of income. I couldn't just simply tell them, I am the boss and I hired myself!
Fast forward to now. I am really glad that things have improved when it comes to working remotely and freelancing. We now have Facebook groups and other people networking and supporting each other. I am also delighted to learn that there are now many and free (who wouldn't like freebies?!) resource for virtual assistants. At least, now I have the tools to improve myself and establish myself in the work from home career.
Okay, so now that I managed to describe what a virtual worker is, what are the basics?
A Virtual Assistant should at least have few specialized skills, may it be in basic customer service, you can do data research & management, you have a good e-mail management skills and other office secretarial tasks (personally, if you can operate any office machine and have a good phone etiquette, it's a good place to start).
For mechanical requirements, you need to have at least three main equipment.
A computer with a good processor and memory.
A headset with noise cancellation.
A decent webcam if your equipment doesn't have a built-in camera.
And a quiet environment with a white background or if you can hang a white curtain or blanket for your backdrop.
I actually have a small coffee table beside me where I place my food and drinks so that I do not have to rush to the kitchen if in case a meeting or client interview goes long.
Right. On the matter of working from home being an easy job, it's better to keep an open mind about other people's perspective in a way, it's pointless to argue or hold a grudge or be raw about people's opinions. Instead, I'd like to channel my energy on my craft and my business. Find out how I can be more relevant by learning new methods and knowledge. Focusing on what matters most by creating discipline within myself regarding my work. I cannot afford to lose sleep over gossip or nasty snigger because it's hard enough to find projects than it is to keep one, and people like me cannot afford to lose projects or we will go hungry and so is our family.
It's more adult to distinguish that nothing in life comes easy, there's no easy job. Every job have its own weight on our shoulder, no matter how light it may be, there's still effort we invest on it.